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As a gamer, I have an innate craving for games I can't have. Ubisoft's Tork: Prehistoric Punk is a fine example, or it was until recently. Tork was originally due to come out much earlier in the Xbox's lifespan, courtesy of Microsoft. But Microsoft had second thoughts, canning Tork and sending it into publishing limbo. Only now, near the end of the Xbox's life, can we finally get to play it. Alas, it turns out that Tork, competent though it may be, wasn't really worth losing much sleep over.

Tork's a little caveman fellow who packs quite a punch. He can smack close enemies with a bolo-like weapon or throw it for a ranged attack. He's also got a temper, and after his rage meter's full he can, for a limited time, transform into three different beasts. That's about it for our hero, and there's not much more to his game.

Whitebread

Tork starts out in a little hub which warps him to the various levels. It's here that the game takes its biggest divergence from modern 3D platformers, in that the levels are not free-roaming. Just as in the old Crash Bandicoot games, Tork can only run forward through the various challenging environments. Well, he can run backwards, but the camera can't swing that way, so backtracking is not a recipe for success.

The platforming is basic and the control and physics are fine. It's too bad that the animal transformations serve mainly to open small hidden areas, and are rarely used beyond that. There is, however, a decent scoring system in place, and the game encourages you to exploit its intricacies to accrue enough points to unlock a handful of bonuses.

This would be an adequate hook in a better game, but in Tork the simple, relatively unchallenging gameplay quickly began to grate. By the third level I could no longer care about killing every enemy and bit of scenery to get a high score, and began simply running through the levels as fast as I could. This actually proved to be more entertaining for a bit, though it destroyed my chances of unlocking bonuses. That's not how the game's meant to be played, though, and the fun was fleeting.